HUMAN MENOPAUSE IS EARLY IN LIFE SPAN

A study by the Universities of Exeter and Cambridge has found a link between killer whales, pilot whales and humans -- the only three known species where females stop breeding relatively early in their lifespan.  Click here. In the unlikely event that post-menopause oarenting doesn't ring your bell, click here.

Typically, one person's research contradicts another's.  The previous researchers excluded that guppies seem to have a menopause, as well.  Reported on here..  "A new study

(2006) finds that guppies experience menopause just like humans and (some) other animals. The study is the first demonstration of menopause in fish and raises the question of why some female animals live beyond their fertile years at all."

With modern medical advances, there is recent craze for childless old ladies to undergo in vitro fertilization to have babies far beyond menopause, The first, I believe was a woman in her sixties.  In 2008, a 70 year old woman in India has given birth in a country where childless women are not given an equal status as mothers. Read here.

On 6/21/2010, a 68 year old Indian woman gave birth   "The mother, Rajo Devi, had been trying for 50 years to get pregnant with her 72-year-old husband, who had failed to become a father in two prior marriages. It was undetermined whose egg and sperm were used in the treatment, the newspaper reported."  I always thought the trying more fun that getting the actual human to raise.  Being of U.S. culture, I can't help but wonder why they didn't quit when they were ahead!

On June 22, 2010, another Indian woman gave birth to twins and one in her late 60's had triplets.  There has to be a DSM diagnosis for this but I doubt everyone will see it my way!  I've always thought that the beauty of after menopause was looking at babies and being happy you no longer had to think about raising one.  The poor grandparents who are left with their abandoned grandchildren and feel obligated to become parents  to them is bad enough...at least the grandmother didn't have to carry them for nine months.

This proves again..."One size does not fit all"

MORE REPUBLICAN HYPOCRISY

After eight years of tanking our economy into the toilet, the Republicans have now developed an ideology of not spending any more money unless they take it from others who need it.  Thus, until July 12th, they will be on vacation while millions go without any unemployment money with which to buy food, pay bills, put gas in their tanks or whatever other basic needs they and their family members might have.

Sadly, Scott Brown has joined his fellow Republicans on this one. His vote could have made the bill pass.  He has money so he needs not.  What kind of conscience do these people like he, Sharron Angle and other Republicans who claim that those on unemployment should just go out and work ANY job.  Do they not understand that there aren't ANY jobs.  The illusion that a college graduate can go work for McDonalds is just that.  The lower paid jobs are already taken by overqualified people as it is though McDonalds and other fast food restaurants wouldn't hire such a person because they can get pay less, give no benefits, and use young people for part-time jobs. The young, unsuspecting kids who use it as their first taste of work for pay (as low as places can make it)..  There are no benefits for an adult with dependents who would need them.  Where have these politicians been living?

As the Republicans who stalemated against  extended unemployment benefits, enjoy their week of holiday recess at home, do you suppose they will give a thought to the 1.2 million who will go without money when they already had none?  But, of course, the voter public will unlikely retain the memory long enough to ask themselves just who the politicians' actually serve.

CELL PHONE DO NOT CALL LIST

Your registration will not expire. Telephone numbers placed on the National Do Not Call Registry will remain on it permanently due to the Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007, which became law in February 2008. Read more about it at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/04/dncfyi.shtm.

If you have not registered, click here to do so.  There is apparently no reason to have to do so again on that number.  However, it is for profit companies only, with paid telemarketers.

It would be my guess that most telemarketers choose random numbers and just call. I have given my cell phone to only a select few friends and make very few calls.  My phone doesn't take pictures, play songs, have apps, a GPS, or any other goodies.  Since I don't go out a lot, it is rarely even on, yet today, while I was charging it, I got a call from a telemarketer.  It is unconscionable for people to be able to call randomly and use up something which costs the called money.  A few years ago people regularly sent messages (ads) to fax machines which cost people paper and ink cartridges.  If people choose to subsidize clothing manufacturers by wearing their logos, it is their choice.  I choose never to do that so certain brands will never appear on my body, as a matter of principal.

ET TU, BRUTE

The Republicans have been very clear that they seek the downfall of President Obama, missing that it is the downfall of the country as well should that happen. There used to be three branches of the government working for the good of the country.  Now it is down to one:  the Executive.  (the only one not currently in control of the far right and Republicans),  the Legislative (dedicated to obstructing any attempts on Obama's part to improve the mess the Republicans had made of the country in the eight years the Republicans were in charge), the Judicial (as we are now seeing the Roberts court as 5-4 in favor of greater government control rather than their professed wish to diminish the power of the federal government in favor of more local decision making by the states for themselves).

The latest Supreme Court decision on bearing arms makes it clear to me that interpreting the 'right to bear arms in militias', taken from a time at the beginning of this country which is less than relevant today with our Coast Guard and Armed services, when the crime rate is so high by illegal use of guns.  Guns today are less often used for personal defense or defense of the country by civilians.  However, the Roberts court seems more political and hypocritical than judicial in intent, with two major decisions recently.  Instead of interpreting the law to defend lives, they have chosen to discount them.  This hypocrisy from a group who reads the law to want bigger government control when it suits them, then limits government control when it doesn't suit them.  Read more here.

In January, the court ruled the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.  I fail to see how money from foreign corporations who might do some business in the United States translates to 'free speech' when it was never interpreted as such by Constitutional scholars in the past.  In my humble opinion, Chief Justice Roberts is as good for the Supreme Court as G W Bush was for the Presidency.  Read here.  We live in more divisive times in which we see power through money influence owning media outlets which brainwash the more than 50% of our people who do not take the time to understand and think for themselves.  Getting rid of the evils that have infiltrated our country is like trying to get rid of cockroaches.

WHEN COUPLES FIGHT

Lots of research has gone into trying to understand what goes in couples quarreling.  Unfortunately, another researcher comes up with a one-size-fits-all explanation.  Having treated couples for probably more years than this researcher has been alive, I can say that his research is most interesting, applicable generally to many couples, but not all.  To read a summary of his work, click here.

For years some have claimed couples fight over religion, money and children.  That may not negate the above but broadens the subject for understanding.  Perhaps these subjects can be broken down to the elements mentioned in the Sanford research.  However, as my readers know of me, I do not find that the one-size-fits-all answers understanding people or in clothing them.  If one searches the Internet under 'why married people fight', therapists advertise that all married people argue and fight and they can be taught the right way to do it.  See here

Now added to the 'one-size-fits-all' idea is that there is a 'right and a wrong way' to fight.  They, of course, will teach you the right way.  In my clinical experience, it has always been 'different strokes for different folks' and one can't diagnose from a rule book.  Indeed, certain symptoms add up to certain conclusions but those symptoms can only be understood in a context that is not readily visible.  Unlike the medical patient who is more apt to describe where and how it hurts on that scale from 1 to 10 so frequently solicited, the patient in a psychotherapist's office is not so readily understood, not so easily in touch with the sources of angst or anger, and often unlikely to be truthful (for another set of reasons research has tried to encapsulate.

In all matters, while researchers have helped understand a great deal, global application doesn't work.  Beware!  Music can't be written for all listeners by mathematical formulas nor can patients be treated by simple rules or formulas.

 

INTERACTING WITH PEOPLE ONLY INTERESTED IN THEIR OWN REALITY

People who argue their own personal beliefs without any scientific or actual facts to back their beliefs are most difficult with whom to discuss religion or religious beliefs.  Needless to say, everyone is entitled to their beliefs but is does say something about their logic (or lack of it), gullibility, rigidity, and if they had strong, early religious training, their inability to change their minds on the basis of new, convincing information. 

People in this group are often thrilled byu Having thought long enough about why I believe or disbelieve myself, I find it interesting to listen to others state their positions and reasons.  The most difficult for me to respond to are those who say, "You don't need to understand, you just have to have faith."  Having had a curious mind all my life (I have to look up words I don't know) and Google has become my closest friend.Not only do I need to understand, I need to understand why I DON'T understand things.

Greta Christina writes a blog to which I have linked before.She talks about the people who are less interested in what's really true about the universe than they are about their personal interpretation of it.  Discussions such as the author describes in her article are plentiful.  People may be happy to find who think as they do around them, they may just enjoy girls,  

GENERAL McCHRYSTAL

It really says something important about people who take the term 'free speech' literally with no common sense about repercussions and with bad judgment. For a general who has been taught loyalty first to his country, not to recognize the elected President with respect when speaking to the media, it reflects a man with little conscience, a bit ofmegalomania,  During WW II. it was very clear that loyalty to the country and President came before anything else.  Assumptions and presumptions are critical in keeping some respect for the United States alive in other countries.  GW Bush had pretty much destroyed any positive views if America and Americans.

The schools used to teach children the importance of their country, its leaders, respect of the flag and  service to their country.  Either the media didn't have the amount of dirt our current politicians are giving us or the most negative lies of the opposition party never became flaunted on TV (the non-existent in US households) nor were oppositions as dirty.  Politicians have always made false promises and the public has always been too lazy to check them out properly.  Political polls didn't ask questions in such a way as to force the answer to come in favor of the party du jour.  Women like Palin, Bachmann, Angle, and a few others like them were not known for their looks or lack of media coverage without TV.

If your presidential candidate didn't make the cut, you backed the man who did. (it had  always been a man until recently).Today, we have few reporters of researched facts but many opinions by those claiming to be journalists based on their opinions and guesses.  Meanwhile we are constantly hearing about the militias out there, waiting to take back their government....from whom, you may ask, since they will fight other Americans who feel it is their country, too.  This is treason.  Will someone act to stifle it?  How will that be done?